The Women's Institute is among organisations concerned about the new lobbying bill. Photograph: Peter Jordan/Press Association Ima

The lobbying bill, which is reaching the final stages of debate in parliament, represents a threat to democracy and would limit the right of charities and campaigning organisations to speak out on some of the most important issues facing the country and planet ahead of elections.

Ministers announced important changes to the bill last week following overwhelming concern. However, they do not go far enough.

A petition calling for further changes was launched last week and signed by more than 75 charities, campaigning organisations and 70,000 people.

The extraordinary speed and scale of support for the petition, including organisations such as Oxfam, Countryside Alliance, Amnesty International, the Salvation Army and the National Federation of Women's Institutes, demonstrate the strength of concern that remains.

Lord Harries of Pentregarth

Chair, Commission on Civil Society and Democratic Engagement, London SW1

The evil of buy-to-let

Isn't it time to recognise the buy-to-let industry as one of the great evils of our age? (Welfare tenants face being cast on to the streets, Barbara Ellen). I can understand, with interest rates being so low, that people might look to purchase two buy-to-let properties as an investment but with a housing shortage it is incredible that a human need such as shelter is being subject to such terrible exploitation.

It is now almost impossible for people born in working-class areas to aspire to own the small terraced houses that their parents or grandparents aspired to get out off.

We understand that a particular strand of Toryism will always look to make profit from human suffering, but it is shocking that under the long years of a supposed Labour government that buy-to-let seemed to be encouraged. I can't see that profiting from a basic need is any more moral than drug dealing or pimping, and landlords with large buy-to-let portfolios, particularly those wishing to evict families on benefits, should be regarded with the same disdain as bankers.

Michael Dillon

Sheerness

Kent

Misery from lack of social care

The news that thousands of people were forced to spend the festive season in hospital unnecessarily as a result of inadequate social care is just one side of the coin ("Cuts strand 18,500 in hospital at Christmas", News). Increasing numbers of older and disabled people are being admitted to hospital in the first place because they did not receive the social care support they needed. In 2013 many disabled people, including the deafblind people who Sense supports, faced huge cuts to their social care, leaving them without the support they desperately need to live full and active lives. Deafblind people without support face increased risk of falls and a range of health problems from arthritis to heart conditions.

The care bill currently progressing through parliament is an incredible opportunity for politicians to finally get social care right in the UK. However, without adequate funding, the bill is built on sand and will not provide the right amount of support for some of the most vulnerable people in society.

Richard Kramer

Deputy chief executive, Sense

London, N1

Big society needs big help

One category which has some right to sneer at the new concept of a "big society'" is those who have worked to promote it for many years – only we didn't give it such a grand title.

In 1974 I was working for Cleveland county council. Forty years on I am chair of the community association in Hebden Bridge. Here we have, in the last four years, taken over the ownership of the old town hall and added a £3m extension to provide enterprise units and facilities for local community groups. This is a confident, well-educated and well-connected community – we can do big ambitious projects, without much help from outside. Many communities have more in common with Port Clarence, where without intervention, little is likely to happen. Under this government such support has been progressively cut in the mistaken belief that the "big society" will spontaneously arise wherever it is needed most.

Peter Hirst

Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire

Sloppy language, chaps

My problem with the Fathers4Justice advert using Kate Winslet is the claim that every child "deserves" their father at Christmas ("Fathers 4 Justice needs a much less crummy strategy"' Barbara Ellen, 29 December). What a child does or does not deserve is irrelevant here. The point, I take it, is that every child has a right not to be barred from seeing his or her father. People are too ready to confuse what we have a right to with what we deserve, presumably because the latter sounds much more cuddly and compliments us on being super people, which we may not be.